Edgewater still recovering from ‘Superstorm’

The Edgewater Community Center opened its doors for residents to come charge their phones and electronics as well as play games in the week following the storm. More photos PAGE 3.

EDGEWATER — The town is still reeling after 80-mile-per-hour winds and an 11-foot storm surge overwhelmed the borough on Oct. 29, triggering an unprecedented town-wide blackout and a torrential rush of water that submerged low-lying residences and parts of River Road.

Hurricane Sandy's wrath cost Edgewater nearly $400 million in private property damage and more than $2.5 million in public property loss. It will take months to clean up, officials said.

"I don't think anyone was prepared for the type of devastation that we witnessed," said Borough Administrator Greg Franz.

The marina suffered the most damage, as did homes and businesses along the Hudson River.

Flooding, for the first time ever, reached River Road. Sections of the town's main artery were inundated with four to six feet of water -- two to three times worse than during a typical torrential rainstorm, said Franz.

An unusually high tide nearly swept away the historic Binghamton ferry and allowed the storm surge to engulf businesses at the Marketplace shopping plaza, a parking garage at the Promenade housing complex and Chase Bank.

The fire department rescued a dozen people trapped by the rapidly rising floodwaters at the Quality Inn; a handful of residents elsewhere sought shelter for the night at Eleanor Van Gelder School.

"The water surge came up so fast," said Franz. "I think people were just overwhelmed by it."

Officials encouraged those in low-lying homes to evacuate the morning before the storm hit but it was not clear how many heeded the warning.

Franz said there were no reports of serious injuries.

By the time Sandy cleared away, Veterans Field — two months into a massive remediation effort — stood bare save for one 100-year-old oak tree. The other two came crashing down in the gale-force winds, entangling power lines and plunging thousands of residents into darkness.

"I just wish they would've fallen into the park if they had to fall," said Donald Jackson, a building maintenance worker and member of the Edgewater fire department. "At least they wouldn't have taken the wires down."

PSE&G crews attempted to reenergize the fallen wires but ran into transmission problems that ignited small fires in some of the surrounding trees.

A resident at the nearby Park House apartment building said he was prepared to leave with his wife and 5-month-old daughter if the flames spiraled out of control.

"It was like a light show," he said, declining to give his name. "[The fire] would come up the [electrical] lines and recede and come up and recede."

Two days later, 13-year-old Amani Taylor carefully maneuvered through the severed limbs of oak trees residents had fought to save this summer from a remediation-induced death.

Franz said the technique used to preserve the trees did not disturb their roots, leaving them in their original, healthy state.

"The winds that came across that field were the so-called 'perfect storm,'" he said. "Those trees just took a direct hit and they toppled over like toothpicks."

The oaks cut the town in half, forcing residents to make their way to the community center, which offered charging stations and an escape from the cold, on foot.

Taylor headed to the center on Nov. 1 to meet up with fellow Leonia Middle School students. The school, like so many others in the region, had to shut for the entirety of the week due to power loss.

She called the experience of Hurricane Sandy, from its screeching winds to the subsequent blackout, "scary" and "crazy."